The Guy Victory Mk II were introduced from 1975-78. There were
145 buses altogether. 20 of which (1977-7
were bodied
by BACo and the rest by Soon Chow. The Victory had a Leyland O.680
engine, the same one as the Atlanteans, and a Leyland Pneumocyclic
4-speed semi-automatic gearbox. They had an overall length of 12.1
metres while seating arrangements varied from 41, 49 or 51 seats.
All of the buses were based at Toa Payoh Depot (now BRAM). Hence,
they received regos beginning with SBS 6XXX, as 6 was the code for
Toa Payoh Depot.
One of my favourite buses of all, the Victory was quick, powerful
and robust but it lacked considerably as far as passenger comfort
was concerned. I loved watching the driver flicking the gears with
one hand and holding on to the wheel with the other. Most drivers
would 'flatchange', ie. changing gears without pausing, causing to
bus to jerk and rattle violently as it gains speed. A heavyweight
supremo, it certainly was a class above the lightweights Albions
and Mercedes buses of that time.
In the mid-1980s, while SBS was experimenting with a few
air-conditioned bus models, there was a project to convert the
existing buses to become air-conditioned. The Leyland Victory was
chosen because of its robustness and its high power output meant
that it could deal with the added weight of an air-conditioner at
the rear. I don't know how many buses were converted but the buses
received an all new bodywork, built by Soon Chow from a Duple coach
design. They rolled out in March 1989 on service 76 and it was
known that services 3 and 390 had also used them at some point in
time. By this time also, the Guy Victory were slowly being phased
out and eventually the remainders were left to work on the Toa
Payoh feeder services. The Victory were completely withdrawn by the
mid-1990s.
Here is a picture of SBS 6668K.
http://suhirman.fotopic.net/p8700121.html
